Microsoft Commerce Server 2000: Supplier Integration Scenario

Commerce Server 2000

Chapter 2, "A Retail Scenario," introduced the fictitious Contoso, Ltd. company and described how Contoso implemented a retail Web site using Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and the Retail Solution Site. This chapter describes how one of Contoso's suppliers, the fictitious company called Ferguson and Bardell, implemented a supplier integration (business-to-business) site. Like the Contoso example, this scenario information is drawn from real deployments of Commerce Server. For detailed information about these deployments, see http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/ . At the end of this chapter, there is also a step-by-step example that describes how to configure a sample supplier site.

Ferguson and Bardell are book distributors. They serve as an intermediary between publishing houses and retail book outlets. Their customers include large retail chains as well as independent bookstores throughout the United States and Canada. They decided to create a Web site on which their customers could place orders and manage account information. One of the primary reasons for putting together the site was that Contoso had approached Ferguson and Bardell about using Commerce Server 2000 and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 to exchange catalogs and purchase orders. Ferguson and Bardell plan to offer this service to other customers after they have tested the exchange with Contoso.

Planning

The Ferguson and Bardell development effort followed the same general processes described in Chapter 2, "A Retail Scenario." They created a development and implementation team and reviewed the product documentation to decide which Commerce Server and BizTalk Server features would best meet their business needs. They decided to implement the following features:

In addition, this section explains how the Ferguson and Bardell team planned site capacity, performance, and growth, as well as how to integrate with their existing systems. The Ferguson and Bardell team decided to base their new site on the Supplier Solution Site, which provides all of these features.

Organization Profiles

You use the Organizations module in the Users category of Business Desk to manage organization profiles. The organization profile included with the Supplier Solution Site provides the following properties:

Organization ID

Name

Trading partner number

Administrative contact

Receiver

Organization catalog set

Purchasing Manager

The database administrator for Ferguson and Bardell provided the necessary information for the Contoso organization profile. The team appointed a site manager to update the organizational information when necessary. In the initial phase of the project, they added the organization profile only for Contoso, Ltd.

Authentication

Ferguson and Bardell have a Microsoft Windows 2000 network and security infrastructure in place. They planned to use the existing network account structure to authenticate organizational contacts when they log into the site. They realized that this would mean adding network accounts for each of their trading partners. Because Ferguson and Bardell work with a relatively small number of high-volume customers, they did not anticipate any difficulties in setting up the new network accounts.

The development team assembled the requirements described in the following table for their authentication system.

Requirement

Description

Identify users

Identification is the process of tracking customers between visits and during a single session. Because Ferguson and Bardell had well-established relationships with their customers, they believed they could ask customers to enable cookie support in their Internet browsers. They decided to use the AuthFilter in Autocookie mode with the authentication scheme set to Windows Authentication.

Delegate administration

Ferguson and Bardell created a delegated administration account for each customer organization. When a user logs on to the Ferguson and Bardell site using this account, they can create and manage accounts for other members of their organization.

Customize the login page

Because Ferguson and Bardell are using the Supplier Solution Site as the foundation for building their site, they need to modify the login page to work with the AuthFilter. (This is described in more detail in the "Development" section later in this chapter.)

Active Directory Integration

Ferguson and Bardell already use Active Directory to store information about internal users. These users are arranged in groups that match the company's organizational structure. When the development team read that the Supplier Solution Site supports Active Directory as a back-end data store for user profile information, they knew they needed to determine whether they could incorporate the user information from their Web site into their current Active Directory implementation. They decided to store the information listed in the following table.

Profile

Description

Organization

The development team decided to store the trading partner profile information in Active Directory.

Users

The development team researched the scaling capabilities of Active Directory and decided that Active Directory could accommodate their requirements for storing user information. They decided to store the complete user profile in Active Directory.

Purchase orders

Ferguson and Bardell handle approximately 100,000 purchase orders per month. Because this is highly volatile data, the development team decided to store purchase orders in their Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database.

Integration with BizTalk Server

Ferguson and Bardell's long-term plan is to migrate their product catalog to Commerce Server. Their current catalog is stored on an IBM AS/400 mainframe computer. Because the goal for the first phase of their project was to integrate with Contoso, Ltd., the planning team decided to keep their existing catalog system, store a copy of the product catalog in a Commerce Server database, and run the two systems in parallel.

The team decided to use the BizTalk Mapper tool to convert their catalog to the Commerce Server catalog Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. They also established a schedule for updating the Contoso online catalog with new data from the AS/400 mainframe. The following table summarizes the tasks the development team performed to coordinate their BizTalk Server implementation with Contoso.

Task

Description

Establish catalog update schedule

Because Ferguson and Bardell are planning to maintain their existing catalog on the AS/400, they needed to establish a regular schedule for updating the Commerce Server catalog and sending it to Contoso. They updated the catalog by running a script that uses a BizTalk Server functoid to convert the catalog from the AS/400 format into the Commerce Server XML format.

Coordinate with Contoso to configure BizTalk Server

Because Ferguson and Bardell planned to exchange catalog information with Contoso, they informed Contoso of the appropriate Commerce Server and BizTalk Server configuration settings.

Configure BizTalk Server to receive purchase orders from Contoso

Ferguson and Bardell had to set several configuration settings using both Commerce Server Manager and the BizTalk Messaging Manager. (For information about specific configuration settings, see Chapter 13, "Integrating Commerce Server with BizTalk Server.")

Modify the Supplier Solution Site to work with the order management system

The Supplier Solution Site provides starter files for integrating with a Commerce Server retail site. For example, the _Recvpo.asp file described in the "Development" section later in this chapter is a starter file for integrating purchase order processing with an order fulfillment system.

Partner Service

Ferguson and Bardell found that the Partner Service area of the Supplier Solution Site was one of the most compelling reasons to use it as the basis for developing their site. They found that the Partner Service enabled them to quickly develop a site in which trading partners could manage their own accounts remotely. This delegated administration feature was important to them. The following table summarizes Ferguson and Bardell's requirements for the Partner Service.

Requirement

Description

Create delegated administration accounts

Ferguson and Bardell's site administrator created a single administrative account for Contoso and sent the login name and initial password to the Contoso system administrator. Contoso could then use this account to log on to the site and access the Partner Service.

Create user accounts

Although partner account management is limited to a single account, the team decided to enable partners to create multiple user accounts for making purchases. Partners logging in to user accounts could also make purchases, view order information, and view information about their account.

Capacity, Performance, and Growth Requirements

The development team defined their architecture and described their performance requirements in the areas listed in the following table.

Area

Description and performance requirements

User experience

The development team believed that because the users on the site will be professional book buyers, they generally know what they want. Two factors critical to their success were the ability to provide users with an interface that facilitated locating books from their extensive collection, and fast access time. They set a performance goal for the maximum time for returning an item from a free-text catalog search as one second when the site is running at full capacity.

Usage profile

The usage profile for Ferguson and Bardell was somewhat different from the profile the Contoso team developed. Ferguson and Bardell projected a significantly smaller number of users, but they expected a higher percentage of purchases. They also expected users to have shorter sessions, because they would be less likely to simply browse the catalog. Their site usage profile includes the following factors:Total user base = 100,000Concurrent user % = 10% (10,000)Average length of a session = 5 minutesAverage number of operations per session = 10The team also developed detailed usage profiles for each of the site pages.

Web server configuration

They decided to begin with two front-end Web servers, based on the following calculation:Number of concurrent users/server capacity10,000/5,000 = 2 Note The complete hardware configuration is summarized in "Deployment" later in this chapter.

Growth forecast

Although this project is being rolled out with Contoso as a test, Ferguson and Bardell intend to bring their other partners online in the future. The estimated total user base of 100,000 is based on the assumption that most of their corporate customers will change to making their purchases from their Web site.

Integration with existing systems

Ferguson and Bardell's order processing and account management system is implemented using J. D. Edwards OneWorld®, running on an IBM AS/400 platform. This system serves as an integration point for all of their sales channels. The new site had to integrate seamlessly with existing systems.

Availability

The team decided that two Web servers would provide sufficient capacity for serving Web pages; however, they also wanted to provide failover capacity in the database layer. They set up their two database servers using Windows 2000 Cluster service and SQL Server 2000 replication features.

Integration with Existing Systems

The development team realized that integrating their Web-based order entry and management system with their existing system was going to be a major challenge. They decided to use Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 to integrate the two. The following table summarizes their requirements for this integration.

Requirement

Description

Retrieve catalog information

Because Ferguson and Bardell decided to maintain their existing catalog system in parallel with their Web catalog system, the development team decided to use Host Integration Server to retrieve catalog information. For more information, see "Development" later in this chapter.

Update order information

Ferguson and Bardell are storing the orders that Contoso places on their Web site in a SQL Server 2000 database. They want to pass order data through the Host Integration Server implementation to the order fulfillment system on their AS/400 mainframe.

Completing the Planning Process

At the end of the planning process, the Ferguson and Bardell development team presented their complete project specification to the executive committee and to the Contoso development team. Their proposal included the following set of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server features:

Catalog and purchase order exchange

Profile aggregation from Active Directory and SQL Server 2000

Integration with existing systems

Delegated administration

Note The Ferguson and Bardell team also planned for other aspects of their Web site, such as their use of the Targeting and Business Analytics Systems. They used the same procedures to plan for these systems as Contoso did. The planning process is described in detail in Chapter 2, "A Retail Scenario."

Development

The Ferguson and Bardell development team began by downloading the Supplier Solution Site (from http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/solutionsites ) and analyzing the built-in, extendable functionality. They decided that the Supplier Solution Site provided the best foundation on which to build their site.

The Supplier Solution Site is a development reference site that provides an integrated set of features for building a site to manage partner relationships. In addition to the business-to-business functionality for personalization, merchandising, catalog search, customer service, and business analytics, the Supplier Solution Site also contains the delegated administration features that Ferguson and Bardell required. For example, it includes the Partner Service, which enables corporate customers to manage accounts for their organizational representatives.

Using the Supplier Solution Site as a starting point, the Ferguson and Bardell development team identified key areas in which they wanted to take advantage of the extensible design of Commerce Server:

Converting and importing the catalog

Developing Component Object Model (COM) components

Modifying site look and feel

Modifying the _Recvpo.asp file

Adjust settings in the App Default Config resource

Converting and Importing the Catalog

The development team read the product documentation for both Commerce Server and BizTalk Server to determine how to use the BizTalk Server mapper tool to convert their catalog into the appropriate format. They discovered that they could use the BizTalk Server Looping functoid to convert their catalog.

They performed an initial mapping of their catalog data, and then arranged for the Contoso team to confirm that they could successfully import the mapped catalog data. When Contoso had successfully imported the catalog, Ferguson and Bardell used the CatalogUpdate component (described in the table in the following section) to automate the process.

Developing COM Components

The development team created the COM components listed in the following table to integrate with their existing catalog system.

Component

Description

CatalogUpdate

BizTalk Server application integration component that retrieves catalog data from the IBM AS/400 using Host Integration Server. It also implements the IFunctoid interface to convert catalog data to the Commerce Server catalog format. The development team also created a script to update the Contoso catalog that is run according to their schedule for updating the catalog.

OrderUpdate

Component that passes an order through the Host Integration Server implementation to the existing order-fulfillment system. When partners place an order on the Web site, it is stored in a SQL Server 2000 database.

Modifying Site Look and Feel

The Ferguson and Bardell development team took the same basic steps to modify the Supplier Solution Site as the Contoso development team took to modify the Retail Solution Site:

Modify the site name

Create new site styles by modifying the dictionary of styles in the Global_ui_lib.asp file

Change the layout for the standard page by modifying the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in the Layout1.asp file

Change strings as necessary in the Rc.xml file

Figure 3.1 shows the Ferguson and Bardell home page after they finished modifying the Supplier Solution site.

Figure 3.1 Ferguson and Bardell home page

Modifying the _Recvpo.asp File

The Supplier Solution Site contains the _Recvpo.asp file, which you can use to facilitate setting up a vendor's Commerce Server installation. (The Default installation location for the _Recvpo.asp file is the \SupplierAd folder.)

When _Recvpo.asp receives an XML document, it starts the XMLTransforms process and converts the XML document back to an order form. Commerce Server then runs a pipeline on the order form. After the pipeline processes the order form, the order is saved in the Commerce Server database. To implement _Recvpo.asp, the Ferguson and Bardell development team added a pipeline component that updates their back-end order processing system with the order information to the Recvpo.pcf pipeline template.

Adjusting Settings in the App Default Config Resource

The development team found that they did not need to adjust most of the settings in the App Default Config resource. The majority of the default values set in the Supplier Solution Site (SupplierAD.pup) met their requirements. The following table summarizes the values they adjusted.

Setting

Description

BizTalk Catalog Doc Type

The document definition name required by BizTalk Server for catalogs.

BizTalk Source Org Qualifier

An alias used to identify the organization that is sending the catalog. Because Ferguson and Bardell are generating their catalog internally, they set this alias to "Internal."

BizTalk Source Org Qualifier Value

The role of the source organization. The development team set this value to "CatalogSender."

Deployment

By the end of the development and testing process, the Ferguson and Bardell team had created an exact duplicate of the system that they wanted to use for production in their test environment. The production site consisted of the servers and software listed in the following table.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Windows Clustering serviceMicrosoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (OLAP)Notes Ferguson and Bardell used SQL Server replication to synchronize their database servers.They used Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) communication for retrieving information, such as order status, from their IBM AS/400 system.They replicated their catalog data, which the AS/400 also stores and manages, on the Commerce Server catalog schema residing in a SQL Server database.

One server for firewall and proxy services

Windows 2000 Advanced Server using proxy and firewall services.

One domain controller

Active Directory store used by the Profile Service. The domain controller is part of the Ferguson and Bardell forest and is replicated on a second clustered server.

One IBM AS/400

J.D. Edwards OneWorld.

Figure 3.2 shows the site architecture for the deployed site.

Figure 3.2 Ferguson and Bardell production site

Testing Business Processes

The Ferguson and Bardell team tested the system thoroughly to assure that all software operated correctly. In addition, they ensured that all team members were prepared for the site to go live by reviewing with them the processes described in the following table.

Verifying Security

Ferguson and Bardell performed all of the security verifications that Contoso performed (described in Chapter 2, "A Retail Scenario"). In addition, they verified that only delegated administrators could create new user accounts.

Going Live

When the development site was completely tested and ready for production, the Ferguson and Bardell team used Commerce Server Site Packager to prepare their site for deployment in the production environment. After they successfully unpacked the site, they did final site acceptance testing with the Contoso team before going live on the production site.

The Ferguson and Bardell team realized from the beginning of the project that this was just the first step towards migrating to full partner integration over the Internet. They planned to explore further integration after evaluating their experience integrating with Contoso.

Configuring a Sample Supplier Solution Site

This section describes how to configure four computers for a Supplier Solution Site that uses both Active Directory and SQL Server 2000. You can perform these steps to build a supplier site for evaluation and testing purposes. There are several other ways to set up a supplier site, including Windows 2000, Domain Name System (DNS) servers, and local intranets, depending on your company's requirements. This section provides a step-by-step example to highlight the points you must consider for a supplier implementation. Figure 3.3 shows the sample configuration.

Figure 3.3 Sample supplier site

To set up the sample configuration, perform the following steps:

Configure Active Directory and DNS on Computer 1, and then promote it to an Active Directory domain controller.

You are using mixed mode authentication for your SQL Server, and Basic authentication for your Web server. If you want to use this configuration in an Internet scenario, you should also enable Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) for your Web server.

Configuring Active Directory and DNS (Computer 1)

You configure the first computer for Active Directory and DNS, and then promote it to an Active Directory domain controller. Active Directory will store the profile data for Commerce Server.

Open the Control Panel, and then use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the static Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Promote the server to an Active Directory domain controller. For detailed steps, see "Promoting an Active Directory Domain Controller" later in this chapter.

Use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the server's DNS entries to point to your domain controller, and configure Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) to point to itself. For detailed instructions, see "Configure TCP/IP to use DNS" and "Configure TCP/IP to use WINS" in Windows 2000 Server Help.

Optionally, if the computer has more than two gigabytes (GB) of physical RAM, add a "/3GB" switch to the Boot.ini file after /fastdetect. By adding this switch, the address space for the user mode processes is increased.

For more information about this step, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

In the Registry, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Services \Tcpip \Parameters, and do the following:

Add (or set if the key is already there) the DWORD value MaxUserPort = 0000fffe.

Add (or set if the key is already there) the DWORD value TcpWindowSize = 0000ffff.

Any site using Active Directory requires these Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) keys. They improve performance on high-speed networks.

Optionally, open Administrative Tools, click Domain Controllers Security Policies, and then set the "logon locally policy" if you want to permit domain users to have that privilege.

You have successfully configured the software on the first computer.

To promote Computer 1 to an Active Directory domain controller, you must use the Active Directory Installation Wizard to specify that this computer is the domain controller.

To promote Computer 1 to a domain controller, perform the following steps:

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Run dialog box, in the Open box, type dcpromo, and then click OK.

In the Active Directory Installation Wizard, click Next.

In the Domain Controller Type dialog box, select Domain controller for a new domain, and then click Next.

In the Create Tree or Child Domain dialog box, select the Create a new domain tree option, and then click Next.

In the Create or Join Forest dialog box, do the following:

Use this

To do this

Create a new forest of domain trees

Select this option if this is the first domain in your organization, or if you want the new domain tree you are creating to be completely independent of your current forest.

Place this new domain tree in an existing forest

Select this option if you want the users in the new domain tree to have access to resources in existing domain trees, and vice versa.

If you selected the Create a new forest of domain trees option, in the New Domain Name dialog box, in the Full DNS name for new domain box, type the full DNS name for the new domain.

In the NetBIOS Domain Name dialog box, in the Domain NetBIOS name box, type the name that users of earlier versions of Windows will use to identify the domain. It is recommended that you accept the default, which is a shortened version of the full DNS name. Click Next.

In the Database and Log Locations dialog box, accept the default settings, unless you have a specific reason to change them.

In the Shared System Volume dialog box, accept the defaults settings, unless you have a specific reason to change them.

If DNS is not installed on your computer, you will be prompted to install it. Select Yes, install and configure DNS on this computer, and then click Next.

In the Permissions dialog box, select the Permissions compatible only with Windows 2000 servers option, and then click Next.

Caution Allowing backward compatibility can lead to security problems with Commerce Server.

In the Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator Password dialog box, do the following:

Use this

To do this

Password

Type the password you want to assign to the Administrator account for the server.

Confirm password

Type the password again to confirm it.

In the Summary dialog box, review the options you selected to ensure your Active Directory configuration is correct. If it is, click Next, or to reconfigure your selections, click Back.

The Configuring Active Directory dialog box appears, notifying you that the Active Directory you configured is being installed on your computer.

You have successfully promoted the first computer to the domain controller.

Configuring SQL Server 2000 and Commerce Server (Computer 2)

The second computer hosts your Commerce Server databases, such as the Administration database, the Direct Mailer database, and the Commerce Server Data Warehouse database. On this computer you install SQL Server 2000, and then install Commerce Server, creating the databases on this computer.

Open Control Panel, and then use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the static IP address on the same subnet and add it to the domain that was created. For detailed instructions, see "Configure TCP/IP for static addressing" in Windows 2000 Server Help.

Use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the preferred DNS servers list to point to the Active Directory server (Computer 1, which in turn is hosting the DNS server) for DNS lookups. Configure the WINS servers list to point to the Active Directory server. For detailed instructions, see "Configure TCP/IP to use DNS" and "Configure TCP/IP to use WINS" in Windows 2000 Server Help.

In the Administration Database Configuration screen, select the current computer as the SQL Server server.

In the Direct Mailer Configuration screen, select the current computer as the SQL Server server.

You have successfully configured the software on the second computer.

Configuring IIS and Unpacking the Supplier Site (Computer 3)

The third computer hosts IIS 5.0, Commerce Server core objects, the Supplier Solution Site, and the Business Desk application for the Supplier Solution Site. To configure IIS and unpack the Supplier Solution Site, perform the following steps:

Open the Control Panel, and then use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the static IP address on the same subnet and add to the domain that was created.

Use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure the preferred DNS servers list to point to the Active Directory server (Computer 1, which is hosting the DNS server) for DNS lookups. Configure the WINS servers list to point to the Active Directory server. For detailed instructions, see "Configure TCP/IP to use DNS" and "Configure TCP/IP to use WINS" in Windows 2000 Server Help.

In the Administration Database Configuration screen, select the remote SQL Server server for use as the primary SQL Server server. This will cause the Web server to use the remote Administration database in the SQL Server server.

Use Site Packager to unpack the Supplier site (SupplierAD.pup) package using the Quick Unpack mode. Accept the default options. For detailed instructions, see "Using Site Packager" in Commerce Server 2000 Help.

You have successfully configured the software on the third computer.

Configuring the Business Desk Client (Computer 4)

On the fourth computer you install the Business Desk client. This computer can be on the outside of a firewall.

Open Control Panel, and then use System to join the Active Directory domain.

Use Network and Dial-up Connections to configure DNS to point to the Active Directory server (Computer 1).

Install Internet Explorer 5.5, which is available on the Commerce Server 2000 CD.

Use Internet Explorer 5.5 to access the /supplieradbizdesk site. The Business Desk client will be downloaded and installed on your computer.

You have successfully configured the software on the fourth computer.

Verifying the Configuration

To verify that you have configured the software correctly on each computer, perform the following steps:

On each computer, in the Run menu, type nltest /dsgetdc:<Domain-DNS-Name>, and then click OK. This operation must succeed. If it does not, then the configuration is not correct.

The Nltest.exe utility is provided in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit.

On the Active Directory server, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS. The domain information should appear under the Forward Zones node. If it does not appear, then the configuration is not correct.

Configuring the Computers for Trusted Delegation

For each of the three computers in the domain (the domain controller is not listed), right-click on the computer name, and in the <computer name> Properties dialog box, select the Trust computer for delegation option, and then click OK.

Verifying Business Desk and the Supplier Site

In this verification procedure, you use Business Desk to create a new user who is an administrator, and then you create a delegated administrator at the Supplier site.

To verify Business Desk and the Supplier Solution Site

On the client computer, log on as a user of the domain. Do not log on using an account local to the client computer.

Double-click the Business Desk icon on your desktop or click Start, and then click the Business Desk shortcut.

In Business Desk, in Users, click Organizations, and then add an organization. For instructions for adding an organization, see "Adding an Organization" in Commerce Server 2000 Help.

Click Users, and then add a new user, for example, Joe User. Assign the user to the organization you created, and set the user's Partner service role flag to Administrator. For instructions for adding a user, see "Adding a User" in Commerce Server 2000 Help.

Do a search on that user, and then update an attribute of the user, for example, the password. If you can change the password, then the user is set up correctly.

On the Active Directory computer, use Active Directory Users and Computers Manager to give the user you just added (for example, Joe User) sufficient permissions to access the Business Desk application.

On the client computer, log on to the Supplier site as the administrator you just created (for example, Joe User).

To create a delegated administrator

In the left pane, under Partner Service, click Users, and then above the user information, click New.

In the Account Info section, from the Account status drop-down list, select Active.

In the Business Desk section, from the Partner service role flags drop-down list, select Delegated Admin.

In the General information section, type the logon name and password for the delegated administrator.

After you create the delegated administrator, the delegated administrator can log in to the client computer and create users for the administrator's specific organization.

Closing the Loop

The Ferguson and Bardell team realized from the beginning of the project that an e-commerce Web site is a corporate asset that business managers must continuously manage, analyze, and enhance in order to keep their Web site competitive. Business managers need to quickly analyze customer activity to measure the effectiveness of their sites, and then use the results to fine-tune the sites. By analyzing customer data, the business manager can make decisions about how to improve the site and meet business goals. Post-deployment responsibilities fall into the following two basic areas:

Analyzing customer data

Implementing the site management cycle

Analyzing Customer Data

Ferguson and Bardell's site administration team analyzes customer data from the Data Warehouse, then provides this information to the management team. They use the data to identify the types of customers who visit the site, what is selling well, and which advertising campaigns are successful.

Implementing the Site Management Cycle

To effectively implement the site management cycle, the business management, site development, and system administration teams agreed to inform each other about the updates they make to the site. They established a process to facilitate this communication. For example, to update a large set of user profiles in bulk, the business management team contacts the system administration team, who then performs this task. To add new functionality to Business Desk, such as a module for selling gift certificates, the business management team sends their requirements to the site development team.

The teams have a process for requesting changes. (For more information about designing a process for requesting changes, see Chapter 8, "Developing Your Site.") They also established a regular meeting schedule to resolve any communication issues that might arise as they continue to refine their site.